Mason Super Duals Youth

Whoa, this Super Duals was hard core! Some darn good wrestling was going on!

This past Sunday the tournament featured 14 teams and let me say the youngsters were putting on a show.

In the first round I had to have an extended conversation with one of the youngsters. At the end of the first period time had clearly run out before he got around his opponent for a takedown. Wasn't even close. Next thing I know the young guy is irate. At first I didn't even understand what he was upset about but then I saw his coaches yelling at him to calm down. So I walked over to him and had a heart to heart conversation of correction, coaching, and positive reinforcement. After the match the coaches came up to me and said 'Thank you, he needed that.' The kids father was matside as well and told me 'Thank you' too. Believe it or not but this is why some of us officiate, to give back to the sports we love.

With that said the final four teams standing in the semi-finals were Lancaster vs Fairfield and Fighting Irish (Indianapolis Cathedral) vs Glen Este. Russell and myself officiated the Irish/Glen Este semi. This was midday Sunday youth wrestling and the atmosphere is electric and the matches intense.

These two teams were evenly matched. Unfortunately there were a few forfeits but in the end it was an awesome dual. I've had some big high school football games, big college football games, big Varsity wrestling matches (like X @ Elder tonight), but this was every bit as exciting. Hey, I have to take it serious because the wrestlers, coaches, and fans all do. This is there Super Bowl.

The match that stands out to me was the battle of the coach's sons. Shortly into the match the Irish kid locks an over and under for a throw right into nearfall and it's 4-0 just like that. Into the second period and we start off neutral. The two wrestlers lock up again over/under and this time the Glen Este kid throws right into nearfall and it's 4-4, just like that. We got a battle going on here.

Now the deciding third period. It's the Irish kid's choice and he chooses down. Period starts and the GE kid is riding tough, but with about 24 seconds left the Irish kid starts to come underneath and tries to split the middle. I stop the match because we have an illegal scissors around the head on GE. So on the restart GE kicks him out and now it's 6-4 as the clock is tick tock tick tocking away. 3, 2, 1, time and that's the way it ends 6-4 Irish. It's pretty loud in there at this point of time. The fans were so into it.

After it's all said and done the Irish pull out the win in a hard fought classic dual. I'm done for the day but they continue wrestling. Glen Este defeats Fairfield in the next round and take third place and the Irish beat Lancaster for the championship. I'm sure they had a nice drive back to Indianapolis.

Once again Mason ran an awesome tournament and got us done super quick. John you are the man! Everyone was great on this day and it was fun to be a part of. I'm outta there and headed home to watch the Cardinals pounce on the Eagles.

Until the next meet...